A Thread By A Tank For Future/Current Tanks.

[Crimen]

Dude. You are awesome for posting something like this. A great read.

[Dartanum]

Good thread. Tanking isn't for everyone, but you will never know if you don't give it a try.

[Vantwan]

One of my favorite things about being a tank is that I can excuse myself to get some water or take a quick bathroom break without fear that the party might have moved on without me.

It's the little things for me that makes me happy being a tank.

[Dorin]

Please let's not turn this again into the usual "Healers and tanks are the only important role, DPS is an inferior and less important role" argument.

Nice read OP, I'm thinking on starting to tank myself, but I don't really know whether I should go for PLD or WAR. Apparently WAR has an easier time to tank from lvl 1 to ~45, but then gets rejected a lot for endgame content. Is that true or?

[Hanabira]

I love tanking as warrior. My second time tanking a dungeon was today in stone vigil. i needed someone to explain the bosses to me, and the group was saying how hard it was. After the first boss went down without much of a fight, the group was shocked that it only took one try. I still dont understand why they found it hard. Same deal with the second boss. I mentioned how cool it would be to have a flawless run on my first try, but then we got to the room with the 3 dragons, and i was having so much fun toying with mobs that i forgot they have a 850AE. i got hit by all 3 of them at once and died hard. We all thought it was funny and had a great time. Isgabind took 3 tries, first time they forgot to mention the paralyzing swirling ice fields and 2 swoops on the 3rd flight and i ate it, the second time, the healer ate it. But then we finished it without much issue, half of my group had been been on their 3rd and 4th attempts at the place.

moral of the story is, tanking isnt hard at all, know when to use your skills and have fun with it.

[NoctisCaelus]

-Snip-

Think of it as a stereotype. It's not entirely true. Warriors have a harder time tanking but it is possible. If anything, Warriors just need to be a bit more geared than Paladins to start certain trial bosses and have less roles to do. In Ifrit HM. Warriors can only main tank. If they off tank, the Paladin must main tank and stun at the same time which is kind of hard.

In Garuda HM. They can both tank and off tank fine if they know what to do and have the right gears. They're a prefer off tank in Garuda HM. In Titan HM, Warriors are more suited because of their immense HP. And Paladins actually have a harder time getting in. But this is based on my experience.

So yeah, it's kind of balanced out. I would always prefer a second Warrior than a Paladin in case I wipe out. Reasons for that is cause Warriors have faster immediate aggro which is useful. I'll get a quick raise and go back to main tanking as a Paladin. But in the end, if you're geared. All roles can be filled pretty easily. It's just right now, with no combat level requirement and such. People might be doing things that are a lot harder than they should be doing.

[Scorpius]

THIS is whats needed. NOT flaming!!..
As a dps, i would love to start on a tanking role, but fear that i wont be good enough
as i know the heat bad tanks get (yes, i have flamed in a dungeon, and felt the worse for it).

This sort of advice always helps.
Imo, what we need is a forum for strats for each job/class so those who need advice have somewhere
to turn to, and i mean a forum that does not contain one person flaming another.
I know we have forums for classes/jobs, but i mean a dedicated forum for help, not just random posts.

Cheers.

[Zion_Cross]

I'd like to add that letting your party members know how your "Marking" system works helps. As communication is key, I usually tend to let the party know right off the bat how the marking rotation works. 1 > 1x > 2 > 2x in terms of priority. The X mean it's the #don'tattack marker (Red circle), same thing with number two. I usually mark the "don't" attack first, and leave the main unmarked. If the main is unmarked it means, "don't attack just yet". When I know I have enough aggro I put up the mark 1, and continue to do rotate moves on the rest of the enemies. I find that some DD's, specially archers, like to go all out at the very start, which usually is very strenuous. I tend to ask them to follow the rules I've stated on markings. Also if I'm running across a hazardous area, I specify to not hit any of the marked enemies till I've cleared them onto a safe spot. Never assume that your DPS can read your mind. Likewise if I know how certain enemies have specific aoe's, I tell them to stand at a specific spot, since I usually have to move the group of enemies away from links/patrols.

[solacekane]

I aggree on all points. and im glad you pointed out the fact that most players assume like other games the tank can immediately pull aggro off of a dps. My one issue I've had and noticed almost in every group is the dps and in some cases healer and everyone else rushing into a room even after the fact that i have told many of my parties to wait and let me mark the order of monsters to attack and to let me get a few hits in and use flash to garner aggro. thats my only observation from my experience tanking so far.

People should realize when you wait and let the tank get hate it also makes the healers job easier only having to focus on the tank as well as their job by not having to worry about getting killed if they would let the tank just do its job.

I will say as well if you are new to a dungeon and tanking communicate with your party and let them know so there are less headaches.

[solacekane]

If anything, Warriors just need to be a bit more geared than Paladins to start certain trial bosses and have less roles to do.....

Maybe its becuase im still fairly inexperienced and i have awesome healers when i group but i havent had much of an issue tanking with the few exceptions i listed in my earlier post. i found that if i dont just spam attacks like most ppeople seem to make tanks out to be im fine. I noticed warriors have 3 heal abilities and if you use them right with your damage combos in concert with a healer you almost never have a problem.

One important thing Id like to encourage for every tank is to level up cooking to at least 20 and always carry the +vit +parry +skillspeed food (i forget the names but they are lvl 16-20) and buy some mega potions for emergencies.